Befriending a Nightmare
by MidoriEyes
Summary: Heather is in Silent Hill, still trying to find her way to Claudia, until she meets a strange someone... or something that helps her find the way out... and Pyramind Head. More info inside! Please R&R!


**Author's Note**: Hmmm… my first Silent Hill fic ever. For some reason, I'm afraid I won't be able to match up to everyone else. I guess that's always the feeling a beginner gets in the start of a new game though. I usually just do fics on anime, but I also love video games, Silent Hill being one of my top favorites. So, as I was watching the Silent Hill movie trailer for the hundredth time one day, I got the inspiration to create my own fic about it. But that was a long time ago, and I've already seen the movie now (on the premier date!) and I think I'll finally decide to finish what I've started on this story. Wow… I'm rambling now, aren't I? Let's just get on with the fic, shall we?

**This story will be based off of Silent Hill 3, but I'm adding in monsters that are from the other sequels as well, so don't be all like "What? This monster isn't in _this_ one!" if a different zombie shows up that's from SH2 or SH4. (I haven't fully played SH1 yet because neither me nor my video game friend has it. I've just played the beginning of it, so don't expect any monsters from SH1 to be in here).**

I- _Corridor of Nightmares_

Heather took some shotgun ammo out of her skirt pocket and loaded the weapon to its maximum. The empty shotgun shells laid scattered on the ground near her feet, some still slightly smoking from the recent use. Blood from the Slurper still oozed slowly out of the wounds she had given it, the hideous mannequin-like creature's glazed skin now splattered with a new coat of crimson. Although, it wasn't the only one that was tainted with the filth.

"Ugh, great. Maybe I should have changed back at the house after all. It wouldn't have taken that long." The short blond-haired girl groaned at the state of her clothes. Her army green skirt was speckled with the red dots, her formerly white, sleeveless jacket was now an off-white cream with some grime and dirt smeared into the material, her brown boots were soiled and scuffed from walking, running, and fighting all day and night, and her dirty blonde hair was now a little _too_ dirty for her.

Heather's attire didn't matter much to her at the moment, because what really disturbed her was her father's blood stain still present on her jacket from earlier. She didn't like it there, but somehow it made her feel like a part of Harry was with her… one who didn't have a deep, illiterate, view of this would probably find it very creepy… and sick…

Sighing, Heather finished up with her task of reloading, kicked the Slurper one more time to make sure it was actually dead, and headed off in the direction that the creature came from.

At the time, our heroine is scouting out a rundown storage facility which, for some reason, had more twists, turns, corners, and rooms than it should. This led her to think that maybe the building was more than just for storing things. A while back, she saw a few odd objects lying around in the halls, like broken televisions, stretchers, laundry bins, wheelchairs, furniture, and kitchen appliances. Some of the things weren't that unusual to see in a storage facility, but others were quite perturbing, depending on what shape they were in or what they were in general. Heather often passed black trash bags along the sides of the walls. Each one of them had the stench of rotting flesh and blood.

Instead of dwelling on everything around her, Heather stayed focused on the objective ahead. She had to find Claudia, wherever in Silent Hill she may be. The blonde had already searched a few places and the only things she found were monster, riddles, and psycho after psycho.

"I really gotta find a better crowd to hang with… and soon."

It seems that the "friends" Heather was picking up during this time of terror and utter destruction were not the kind of people she preferred to be with in her every day life. And really, who could blame her?

There was one last door to check in this corridor, so, wanting to get this over with, Heather barged into the gaping space, greedily straining her eyes through the black sheet of darkness within. She couldn't hear any moaning or other ghastly sounds coming from the room, so she assumed it was safe and switched on her travel-size flashlight nestled in her breast pocket. It was nothing but an old storage closet with useless items adorning the shelves. She came upon these places often and usually they were a big help on her journey for some had supplies that she might need for later. Unfortunately, there was nothing there that would help to Heather's advantage except some cans, papers, boxes, and other large equipment. Although she had plenty of ammo and health drinks with her, she felt she required something to help make this trip easier. By now, she had run out of that beef jerky to distract the Double Heads, and it seemed that the Slurper she was finding were multiplying by the second.

The blonde glanced around for a few more seconds and with an agitated shrug, began to leave the room. She had turned on her heal and was about to reach for the doorknob, when she heard a small clanking noise come from above.

Hesitantly, she peered up at the ceiling, but didn't notice anything unusual.

"Huh?" She tilted her head in confusion and scanned the top for signs of movement, but found nothing but an air vent.

The noise was heard again, and conveniently, Heather saw something shift from the blinds of the metal platelet above.

'Crap. What is it now?' She thought to herself, hand poised at her side, ready to whip out the shotgun if need be. She didn't see the figure move again, but she sensed its presence still lingering, still watching. And, for some strange reason, the presence didn't feel threatening at all. Just… curious.

So, as quietly as could be, Heather inched her way out of the storage closet, and shut the door achingly slow.

"Phew." She sighed with relief. "Well, I don't know what was in that room, but I didn't want to find out by waiting to see if it would make a move." The older teen slipped her weapon back in her pocket and continued to stroll cautiously down the hallway toward a main door which would lead her to a different part of the building.

--- --- ---

As soon as Heather entered the new hallway, she winced and covered the sides of her head swiftly. The sound still nearly pierced her ears whenever she heard it.

"Looks like those flying monsters are in this part." She could tell that the Pendulums were at the farthest end of the corridor from where she was, but not wanting to take any chances, Heather quietly creeped along the wall to the right of her and turned off her flashlight. Luckily, after being in a world of shadows day and night, the blonde had pretty much trained her eyes to see in the dark. Well… she could at least see objects closer in front of her, but from a distance was a little bit harder to work with. Good thing the Pendulums made a noise clear enough for her to hear. A VERY clear noise.

"Ugh… I hate it when they screech like that. When are they gonna stop?" Heather complained and squinted her dilated pupils in order to visualize her surroundings.

After hitting a wall and tripping over about a dozen contraptions lying around, Heather took her hand off the wall and sighed.

"Finally. I can't hear those things anymore." She made sure of her confirmation by standing completely still and listening for a second.

"Yup. Gone for good."

The teen turned on her flashlight again.

She gasped in shock and fear once she was able to see clearly.

Surrounding Heather, was a den of sleeping Insane Cancers.

'Oh god…'

The fat, lumps of flesh lay in various places, making it nearly impossible for Heather to find a way through them all. How she was fortunate enough not to wake the monsters up already, she had no clue.

'Crap.' She thought to herself and quickly turned off the flashlight. 'I gotta get out of here.' She couldn't plan any further than that for she _had _no plan! If she switched on her only source of light, they would awaken. If she tried to find her way out in the dark, then she would surely bump into at least one of them, and what's worse than a raging Insane Cancer trying to body slam you in the dark?

Then, an idea struck Heather.

'Maybe if I shine my light up towards the ceiling and not directly at them, they won't wake up. It's worth a shot, I guess…' Carefully, the blonde turned it on, and made sure to aim it up. She then slowly glanced around to make sure none of the monsters stirred. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any movement.

'Phew… now, how to get out of here without stepping on one of these big tubs of lard…' Heather took her first step in a small space ahead of her and kept her balance. The first obstacle was an Insane Cancer's chubby little arm, so she cautiously brought her other foot over and set it down on the opposite side of the appendage. Next was a sausage-like leg. The blonde had a bit more distance to go over on this one, but she couldn't hesitate too long, so with as much grace as she could, Heather leaped over onto the gap between the Cancer's legs.

The end wasn't too far away. Just six more monsters to hop over and she'd be home free!

After doing the same thing for practically every other blob of jelly, Heather found herself at the last "row" of some sort where a straight line of Insane Cancers were resting. It was almost like a barricade. There wasn't a crevice left in between this particular group of monsters. She couldn't just jump over one of them, unless she wanted to fall on top of it. This was certainly a predicament for the teenager. It's like… you could see the finish line, but there were some big, heavy rocks… big, fat, heavy, flesh-colored rocks… attached to your feet, enabling the chance for you to win.

'Damn. How am I going to get across these oversized Pillsbury Dough Boys?' Heather almost crossed her arms in thought, but remembered the flashlight that she was supposed to keep upward. Maybe if she went a different way around the Insane Cancers, there'd be a bigger opening. It was worth another shot.

But before the blonde could get the chance to even turn around, she heard a familiar noise somewhere in the corridor. It sounded like the clack she heard before in the vent of the storage closet. Heather warily, directed her flashlight toward the source of the sound and, in the hazy darkness, her eyes were able to make out a few grey forms limping towards her. As they got closer to her light, she realized what they were.

'Crap! Another army of skanks to deal with. But why now!' Heather panicked. The Nurses were obviously attracted to her light, but if she turned it off, how would she be able to get out of the nest of Insane Cancers? Everything just turned from bad… to worse.

A small gleam attacked Heather's eye, and the teen saw a shotgun lingering in one of the zombie's hands. The others had rusty metal pipes. Another problem… if that Nurse fired at Heather, the Cancer's would surely wake up. What would be even worse is if the Nurse's aim was off because of her epileptic limping and shot one of the blobs instead.

There was too much for her to think about!

Heather saw the Nurse with the shot gun raise her weapon, and without thinking, the blonde shut off the flashlight, eclipsing her, the Insane Cancers, and the Nurses in total darkness once again.

Heather noticed how the sounds of the weapons the Nurses were dragging came to a stop on the floor. The shot from the one zombie woman never came, so the blonde was able to relax now that everything had settled down a bit. There was still a terrible buzzing in her head from all the excitement and fretting over each aspect of her situation, but at least the Nurses had refrained from coming any closer and waking the sleeping bunch of Cancers. The big question was…

How was she gonna get out of here?

The teenager let her muscles go limp for a second and slowed down her thinking process to examine what resources she had to help her through this problem. Right now, she had a few health drinks, a first aid kit, some shot gun ammo, her metal pipe, and a knife hidden in her right boot. There wasn't much to work with here…

…………….

There was only one option to take. It was crazy and downright ludicrous, but _hell_ if she was just going to stay there for all eternity, waiting for one of the monsters to make their move!

She had to wake up one of the Insane Cancers.

At least in that way, it would stand up and maybe a little bit of room would appear for Heather to squeeze through. If there were any other alternatives, then she would gladly take them, but no one else was around to give suggestions, so she decided to risk it.

The blonde would have to wake it up in a way that none of the others would be disturbed as well. Shining the light into it's face was out of the question, lest she attract the Nurses. The shot gun wouldn't be a good option either, so the last thing left was her pipe or a subtle touch on the shoulder………… she chose to go with the pipe, for good reasons...

Heather switched her gun with the metal pipe and took a deep breath before doing what she was about to do. 'This better work…' She prayed and raised her weapon slightly.

Bringing it down with enough force to at least leave a stinging feeling on human flesh, she quickly retracted the pipe once she saw the Insane Cancer moving.

The puke-colored sumo zombie slowly groaned and began standing up on its nubby legs. It's face was even uglier up close and awake. Just as Heather, predicted, there was a little space in between the one sleeping Insane Cancer on the left and the newly awaken one. And without hesitation, the blonde dived through the crevice in hopes of popping out on the other side.

Unfortunately, the awake blob backed up to see what had disturbed it and bumped into Heather in the process, knocking her over… onto the other sleeping Cancer.

She shook her head from dizziness, got one look of the thing in front of her, and froze. The Cancer instinctively reached out it's arms to grab the object which shook it from slumber, but the small arms weren't long enough to get a hold of Heather, so she hurriedly bounced off the monster and made it onto safe land.

FINALLY!

The teenager felt like shouting for joy, but was aware of her current situation. Right now, two Insane Cancers were awake and it wouldn't be long before they woke up the rest of the group. Heather started heading in the direction away from all the monsters, but stopped short in her track when she saw the familiar gleam of a shot gun still in a Nurse's hand. Crap… she still had _them_ to deal with.

But, as long as the light was off, the zombies wouldn't be able to see her, right? So all she had to do was wedge her way through the group of scantily clad ghouls and find an exit from this room of hell.

The blonde was able to see the dark forms stock still in the dark, so there was no problem of bumping one of them. She saw a few of the Nurses twitch at the brush of air that sprinted past them, but nothing more than a jerk of the body.

Heather was in the middle of the pack of Nurses when she heard a small tapping sound. Turning to look, she wasn't able to make out what had made that noise because of the darkness. It was coming from where the Insane Cancers were, but she doubted that ant of them could make that light of a sound.

So, staring at the area where she heard the noise, Heather waited.

………

………………

Nothing happened.

'Okay, just keep going Heather. You can do it, girl.' She thought to herself encouragingly.

The teen threaded her way through the remaining few Nurses and could see the end just ahe-

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH----!

The blonde's heart almost jumped to her throat at the startling sound of Pendulums close by.

So that's what the tapping was. A pendulum walking on its legs.

'Damn it! They followed me all the way back here!'

But the bug-like zombies were the least of her problems. One by one, Heather heard each and every Insane Cancer awaken and moan groggily in detest. Still unable to see anything, the girl wanted to know if the Nurses would make a move because of the disturbance, but none did. The thing she DID hear though, were the sounds of Nurses being knocked down and mutilated in some sort of fashion.

It seemed that the Insane Cancers were killing anything that was in their way, probably thinking that the Nurses were the ones who woke them up.

Taking that fact as a good excuse to run away safely, Heather dodged through the rest of the zombies women and ran as fast as she could down to the end of the expansive hallway.

After the sound of rampaging Cancers, screeching Nurses, and eardrum-bleeding Pendulums were no longer heard, the blonde slowed down against a wall to rest. Huffing and puffing, she turned on her flashlight, checked every nook and cranny for possible monsters to be hiding in, and slid down to the ground, her arm resting on her upright knees.

"God… this place is so messed up! I swear, I thought that would be the end of me. There's _gotta_ be an exit somewhere around here…" The teenager shined her light against the greasy grey walls once more to see if she had missed the sight of a door. But nothing was there except cold, hard concrete.

"Damn it. Now what do I do? I can't go back there, where all those… things are." She shook her head hopelessly and sighed.

Heather was still catching her breath at the moment, staring at the floor, contemplating what had been going on these past few days, and thinking of a way to bring this all to an end.

"My father's dead, I'm trapped in this hell-ridden facility, and I've just recently learned that there's some twisted God that will destroy all mankind… if I don't stop that **witch**, Claudia." She muttered bitterly. "Once I find her… I'll make sure she pays for what she did to my dad. And I'll do it with my own two hands." The blonde looked at the palm of her hands intently, dirty from past battles. She then furrowed her brow in frustration, and clenched them into fists, letting her hands relax after a few heavy seconds.

In the midst of her reminiscent nightmare, she heard a clanking sound coming from the dead end wall. Heather gasped and quickly turned her head towards the source, managing to catch a glimpse of someone… or something, lowering what looked like a secret door back in place.

"Hey! Wait!" The teenager stood up and jogged over to the end of the corridor and directed the flashlight at the ground. There, she saw a square, metal door with a bean-shaped hole on the right of it, most likely for pulling the door up. Before diving right in though, the girl tried peaking through the hole to see if anything dangerous awaited her, but saw nothing except complete darkness. Heather had gone into many shadowy and unknown places before this one, but it all scared her just the same. Something obviously was down there, hence the figure that had disappeared from sight a few minutes ago into the depths of this secret passage.

Heather had a feeling that the "something" was the same thing from what she saw earlier in the storage closet and the long, zombie-ridden corridor. It hadn't chased after her, so it might be harmless. But it kept following her like a curious cat. In the end, it ran away so Heather never got a chance to see what it was. But this time, she would go after it and see what the strange creature was trying to hide. Maybe it would lead her out of this place.

And so, with as much strength as she could muster, the blonde put all her backbone into lifting the heavy metal door, the rusty hinges creaking at it's lack of use. With a loud bang, the secret hatch fell back onto the concrete floor and the passage was opened. The girl inspected the hole first by shining her light down into it. Luckily, there was a latter she could step down on and lower herself to the bottom with, but otherwise, she couldn't get a clear visual of the very end of the passage.

Keeping in mind that the creature could still be near, Heather didn't say a word, and made her way down the secret escape route, hoping that she could find the answers to her current questions soon.

**AN**: Phew! Sorry there was so much stuff going on in this first chapter. I wanted to make it suspenseful and scary at the same time. I don't know if you all were scared or not, but as long as it kept you all entertained, I'm fine with that! Hope you liked it, and look forward to more soon! Maybe you'll find out what that "strange creature" is in the next chapter.


End file.
